Jason Kenney's good idea: Make immigration an engine of growth

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer raises his hand as a group of 60 people take the oath of citizenship during a special Canada Day citizenship ceremony in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday July 1, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Lawrence Martin is the author of 10 books, including six national bestsellers. His most recent, Harperland, was nominated for the Shaughnessy Cohen award. His other works include two volumes on Jean Chrétien, two on Canada-U.S. relations and three books on hockey.

It’s like “a dating site,” says Immigration Minister Jason Kenney of his new come-to-Canada plan. It’s designed (to continue his analogy) to attract the hottest prospects from abroad to match up with Canada’s job needs. Skilled workers as opposed to the less gifted.

The plan would see foreigners advertise their skills on a Canadian government database. Employers in the private sector would then cherry-pick, as would government officials.

The selections will be made on the basis of need — workers that the Canadian labour market itself cannot supply. That’s where it gets tricky. Corporate employers, spotting the benefits of getting cheaper skilled labour from overseas, might easily find a way of fashioning their job requirements so as to bypass Canadians.

One online opponent of the plan griped that it’s like setting up a headhunting office — or a fishing trip — for Stephen Harper’s corporate buddies. It will further undercut the Canadian middle class, said another. More great news for China, posted a third. Why not train young Canadians workers for the positions? Why aren’t we looking after our own? Isn’t youth unemployment bad enough already?

There were other grievances. What happened, responded one altruist, to the old humanitarian Canada that provided a new home for foreigners in need? What’s with the new selfish attitude where we try to brain-drain other countries? We’re already cutting back on foreign aid.

While there may be merit to some of the objections, there will be no stopping the new survival-of-the-fittest philosophy. The reform scheme is designed to make the Canadian economy more competitive by attracting the best and the brightest. It proposes to prevent the ghettoization of immigrants and to ease the demands on the welfare system.

If it can be designed so as to prevent serious damage to the job prospects of Canadians it is worth pursuing. There is no denying the need to maintain the country’s large immigration flows (250,000 per year). Canada’s birthrate is so low that we need that many immigrants just to keep the population at its current level. Moreover, we are now seeing the huge baby boomer generation move into retirement, leaving a great many skilled jobs to fill. This trend will continue for a long time to come.

Kenney explained his new plan to The Globe and Mail. “An employer will be able to say, ‘Look, we’re doing a major mining development in Ontario. We need skilled mining engineers and we’re unable to find them in Canada.’” The employer could go to the matchmaker database and find qualified applicants. “They would arrive in Canada as permanent residents with prearranged jobs and literally be going to work at their skill level within a few days of arrival.”

The plan follows on other moves by Kenney that have the same purpose. One decision last year simplified an immigration program so as to permit international students who have work experience to apply to become permanent residents.

It was common consensus that our old backlogged immigration system — one that required lining up for years and years, one that catered less to skilled applicants, one that risked the growth of an immigrant underclass — was due for an overhaul. Immigration ministers in previous governments either lacked the will — this being a highly controversial and sensitive area — or the clout to attempt a shakeup of the system.

Kenney’s measures, which include major streamlining efforts and an overhaul of the refugee system, appear to enjoy public support. The 44 year-old, noted for his around-the-clock work regime, has earned a reputation as one of the Harper cabinet’s most effective performers. He was a good choice for immigration minister, having handled the multiculturalism portfolio beforehand. In that role, he was credited with fashioning the Conservatives’ political breakthrough into ethnic Canada, an area that had always been dominated by the Liberal party.

Kenney, a good bet to become industry minister in his next incarnation, has a sense of where this country stands economically. He’s aware of our poor ranking in productivity, in competitiveness, in innovation and in several other economic indices. He’s aware that in order to boost these numbers, we need new ideas and of talent. His effort to modernize our immigration system is a good way to get them.

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